On this day in 1897, the city of Kingston upon Hull was granted city status. Since Roman times, city status was granted only to settlements which had a cathedral, meaning places which didn’t, such as Hull missed out. In 1889, Birmingham had successfully argued that they should become a city on the grounds of a high population and a reputation for good local government,This paved the way for other towns to follow suit and a rash of statuses were granted, especially to rapidly expanding towns in the industrial north. Leeds and Sheffield had already become cities in 1893 and by 1897, it was the turn of Bradford followed by Hull in September 1897 to become a city; as part of Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee celebrations.